How did a small, rural state become so influential in the presidential nominating process? A political scientist traces the development of the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus.
Gordon Adams, American University School of International Service
US officials have consistently lied over decades about progress in the Afghanistan war. The lies are no surprise, writes a foreign affairs scholar – but they have profound consequences.
David Banks, American University School of International Service
In northern Syria, Trump has caused U.S. allies and rivals to view American commitments in a new, uncertain light. Other countries may now shift to depend less on the U.S., weakening national power.
Distrust of the US – even if misplaced – can linger for decades, thwarting Washington’s foreign policy goals. A former US diplomat in Iraq reflects on that country’s skepticism of US aid efforts.
Both climate activist Greta Thunberg and former U.S. president Barack Obama made their presences known during the Canadian election. Was it interference?
Many recent executions in the US by lethal injections have resulted in prolonged suffering before death. A historian asks: Could the guillotine be a preferable method?
A critic of Obama’s two terms explains how the 44th president’s personality and his politics of ‘least resistance’ prevented him from rising to the moment.
As former director of the US Information Agency, Edward R. Murrow, once put it, presidential travel should be treated as a ‘weapon’ to influence popular opinion.
Virginia’s stark political contradictions, reflecting centuries of racism and a new liberal majority, were on display when a blackface image was found recently on the governor’s old yearbook page.
Professor in U.S. Politics and U.S. Foreign Relations at the United States Studies Centre and in the Discipline of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney